Three Reasons Mayor Johnson's Republican Switch is Big for Texas and the America First Movement

Topic: Perspective

For what seemed like decades, but in reality was just a few years, Dallas Love Field was nearly a second home to me.  When I was selling traffic control equipment, I unlocked all Southwest Airlines perks by the halfway point in the year, which meant early boarding with A-List Preferred, and the coveted companion pass, which allows holders to take someone along anywhere Southwest flies for no cost except security fees.  It is widely considered the best perk in the airline industry.

The amplified voice of the Dallas mayor, which rang out at intervals over the airport’s intercom system, became familiar, just as the Fort Worth mayor’s voice would when using DFW Airport, a third home, just a half hour to the west.

“I’m Dallas Mayor Eric Johnson,” began the familiar refrain.  I didn’t commit much thought to Johnson, primarily because as far as major city mayors are concerned, he didn’t create many, if any, negative ripples.  Search his name plus Donald Trump and you won’t find Trump criticism anywhere near the top of the search results.  He appears to have kept away from that topic, perhaps to conceal his actual ideology.

Now, the word is out.  Johnson has declared he has switched his party affiliation to the Republican Party, and will operate in Republican circles after his time as mayor concludes in 2027.  He won’t be able to register as one because the state doesn’t register voters by party, but he has made it known he is no longer affiliated with the Democrat Party, which seeks to control a state it has not won a statewide office in for nearly three decades, and in which it has not controlled a legislative chamber in for two.

When this news broke on Friday, Dallas became the largest city in America with a Republican mayor. Simultaneously, I was belted with a barrage of pessimism and cynicism over the move, with most commenters saying it was an act of kabuki theater, and that it would be ultimately meaningless and perhaps worse, the actions of a snake infiltrating a movement.

I am not threatened by differences of opinion, but this is not a meaningless occurrence.  Johnson is not adjusting to reality – in fact, Dallas County was won by every Republican nominee from 1968 through 2004 (and from 1952 through 1960, breaking only for Lyndon Johnson in 1964), but provided a margin, albeit artificially high, for Joe Biden of 291,500 votes in 2020.  The expansion of urban Dallas has now infringed upon neighboring Collin, Ellis, Tarrant, and Denton Counties and, along with three other giant blue counties, has put Texas on a path to blue by 2032 if current political winds persist.

What is my point?  Johnson isn’t trying to fit in.  In fact, he is going completely against the grain.  Here is a list of America’s mayoral party affiliation, ranked by Top 10 largest cities:

New York City – Democrat

Los Angeles – Democrat

Chicago – Democrat

Houston – Democrat

Phoenix – Democrat

Philadelphia – Democrat

San Antonio – Independent (personally Democrat)

San Diego – Democrat

Dallas – now Republican

Jacksonville – Democrat

We must skip down to the 15^th largest city, Fort Worth, to find another Republican mayor in Mattie Parker, then to the 23^rd largest for Oklahoma City.  Rounding out the Top 50, we only find Republican mayors in the 35^th(Fresno), 37^th (Mesa), 41^st (Omaha), 43^rd (Virginia Beach), 45^th (Miami), 48^th (Tulsa), and 49^th (Bakersfield) largest positions.

In summary, only 10 of 50 cities in terms of highest population have a Republican (and in many cases, full-on RINO) mayor, and this metric is much more prominent in the Top 25, with just three Republican mayors.  So yes, Johnson went against the grain by switching, even with no re-election campaign forthcoming, especially considering that the most recent mayoral shockwave came in the form of Jacksonville, Florida, switching control from a Republican to a Democrat mayor in May.  In fact, Johnson, the 60^th mayor of Dallas, is just the fifth Republican mayor, and he made his switch leading a rapidly diversifying city that is filling up with an increasingly white-collar tech and financial sector heavy workforce.

Within Texas, with Parker aside, we must go all the way to the 73^rd largest city in America, Plano, to find another Republican mayor.  Now, you may be asking, especially if you know how I feel about the Uniparty scam, and the many failings of the ideology of conservatism, why this is a big deal.  Let me explain.

The Democrat Party controls the electoral votes of 18 states with just a single county in each.  While the Republican Party used to have the ability to win every state regularly, the states in the aforementioned article aren’t even worth contesting because Republican voters have abandoned the urban space, leaving not only its political influence up to Democrats, but its cultural influence as well.  While the cat is away, the mouse plays, and does so in such a manner that a small gain on their end proportionally devastates any Republican gains in suburban, exurban, or rural areas of a state.

Johnson indicated that he has always been about law and order, and that the cities need Republican leadership.  I don’t smell a RINO; if anything, I smell a DINO that knew he wouldn’t have ever been elected mayor of Dallas unless he had the proper letter after his name.  A word of wisdom to all skeptics (and yes, perhaps you’ll be proven right in the future, and I’ll be wrong) – we have no awakening if we don’t allow people to change their minds.  Kari Lake changed her mind, Donald Trump changed his, and I suspect many more movement leaders will in the coming weeks, months, and years.

Johnson is right – we cannot abandon our cities.  Too many people who control too much power live there, and as someone who has spoken at more than 200 events in two years, I can attest to our neglect of the cities.  I’ve never spoken in the heart of major blue cities like New York, Philadelphia, Boston, Los Angeles, Chicago, or Seattle, though I’ve spoken in collar counties deep within Republican safe spaces on the periphery of the blue chaos.  Johnson, a black man who could have ridden race and party affiliation as the mayor of one of America’s Top 10 cities, has made a major play with the following impacts: